Category: Merchant & Mills

And I mean lots of birds! This is such a cute print, but I know the pics don’t really showcase it well. The birds are little!

The fabric is a rayon/lycra from Fabric Mart , and it was a bit of a surprise when it arrived. It’s heavy and very stretchy in both directions. Hmm. I went looking and found it on Craftsy, which does a nice job of giving the fabric particulars. So – this fabric is 8% lycra, and it’s hefty at 8.8 oz. I knew finding a good application, other than leggings, would be dicey.

So I started with a Bantam Vest from the Merchant & Mills Workbook. It’s one of my very favorite patterns for sleep tops and layers under cardigans, and I make it in both knits and wovens.

Working with the vest gave me lots of opportunity to find the right tension, pressure, and stitch length for this spongy fabric, on both my sewing machine and my serger. The ripper got a bit of a workout…

Next up, I cut out ‘my’ sharkbite tunic, the one that started as a Tessuti Frankie dress and got completely redrafted. I never did make a Frankie dress – that pattern just didn’t work for me (small armscye, narrow sleeves – those critical bits).

A couple more pics – this is fun to wear! A little sassy…

On other fronts, I’ve been freaking out because my fabric stash is pitiful. And I only have one fabric that’s suitable for spring and summer. What to do…

Solution – I ordered 3 woven cottons from Hancocks of Paducah, all on sale for 5.99/yard. BTW, the best places to lurk sales for premium quality quilting cottons, IMHO, are Hancocks of Paducah and Hawthorne Threads.

Feeling calmer with fabric on the way, a parting shot, retro to the max – Easter 1959: